I’d like to thank Woodinville Whiskey Co. and their PR team for providing this bottle with no strings attached.
I’m watching a four-and-a-half-month-old puppy this week, so I’ll be heavily cribbing from the press release while trying to keep both eyes on him and still type something at least mostly coherent. Luckily, the producer was nice enough to send over a separate press release that provides a detailed explanation of exactly what went into the barrel this bourbon was aged in, so I’ll be reproducing that in its entirety below. Because while I have a healthy disdain for marketing in all its forms from having worked in various agencies and corporate marketing departments over the years, I thought this was a pretty informative read. Just keep in mind that while producers don’t typically lie, the story they tell is usually crafted to flatter themselves. And as knowing that is just part of being media-savvy, I’m sure you already knew that. But I thought I’d mention it just in case. Anyway, here it is.
24 Month Open-Air Seasoned, Heavy Toast Light Char
Could it be the best bourbon barrel ever?
Over a decade ago Woodinville founders Brett Carlile and Orlin Sorensen set out to establish, once and for all, what kind of barrel would make the best bourbon in the world.
This would not be a quick or typical process. Methods? Everything on the table. Industry norms? Goodbye. Budget? None. Woodinville was still a young distillery then but Brett and Orlin saw this quest as an investment. Since it’s generally accepted that over 70% of the flavor and character of a bourbon comes from its barrel, it seemed to them they’d need the best barrel in the world if they wanted to make the best bourbon in the world.
Woodinville’s partners at Independent Stave Company, the foremost barrel cooper in America, were game. Let’s run a test, they suggested, and see what happens. ISC presented eight different barrel types:
#1 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
#2 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
#3 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
#4 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
#3 Char 18-Month Open-Air Seasoned
#5 Char 18-Month Open-Air Seasoned
Heavy Toast/Light Char 24-Month Open-Air Seasoned
Thin-Stave Barrel
Whiskey industry standard is a kiln-dried barrel at #3 or #4 char. Chars #1 and #2 are rarely used in bourbon, and because of the extra time it takes, “open-air seasoning” costs way more than a kiln-dried barrel. Extra time is on-brand for Woodinville, a distillery that refused to sell its flagship bourbon until it was a minimum of five years old, so this open-air method seemed promising. It involves exposing the staves (the wood planks used to build a barrel) to rain, sun, wind, everything the elements can throw at them. This process promotes a deterioration of the wood polymers, creating smaller molecules that can be more efficiently transformed during charring and toasting. (Non-scientific translation: It basically gives you more of the “good stuff”.)
After ISC’s coopers turn those seasoned staves into a barrel, the careful art of toasting and charring begins. Toasting is the process of setting the barrel cylinder over a fire for 30 to 45 minutes without the fire ever actually touching the wood, During toasting, the inside of the barrel is heated, which caramelizes the natural sugars and creates a “red layer” in the wood. When you take a sip of whiskey and detect notes of vanilla, caramel, and toffee, what you’re tasting is the result of the toasting process.
Charring, on the other, is done by lighting the inside of the barrel on fire for 20 to 60 seconds. This creates a layer of char on the surface of the wood, which acts as a filter for the young whiskey, as well as adding color and notes of dried fruit, oak, and spice.
Brett and Orlin filled the eight test barrels with new-make whiskey and waited. And waited. And waited. Four-and-a-half-years later, the whiskies were ready for analysis by gas chromatograph at ISC. The heavily toasted, lightly charred barrel made from 24-month open-air seasoned staves was found to have significantly higher amounts of whiskey’s favorite core compounds: furfural (sweetness, almond, baked bread), vanillin (vanilla, creaminess), and phenols, namely guaiacol (smoky, spicy) and 4-methyl guaiaco/ (sweet, candy, clove, leather). But they couldn’t declare their mission complete just yet.
Brett and Orlin noted the whiskey from this barrel had a slight “graininess,” attributed to its light char. (Think of the carbon filter in your fridge’s water dispenser.) They decided if the barrel could be aged a little longer, that grain character would soften and transform into desirable flavor compounds. A little longer meant four more years. For all those who aren’t tracking the math, that’s two years of stave aging, four and a half years of initial aging, and five additional years in the barrel. 2 + 4½ + 5 = 11½ years of work, patience, and hope represented in this liquid, one of the most balanced, complex, refined bourbons you will ever taste.
An 8 Year version of this bourbon with its unique mashbill of 55% corn, 35% rye, and 10% malted barley mashbill was released last year. Brett and Orlin call this limited release Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 9 Years. The bourbon will be available at www.woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/collections/all-products. And watch for a 10 Year statement of it in 2026, offering whiskey collectors a unique opportunity to acquire all three editions.
Ok, so now that the producers and marketers have had their say (and thank goodness they sent that along, the puppy has been getting into absolutely everything while I was putting this together), let’s see how it tastes, shall we?
Woodinville Whiskey Co. 9-year-old Bourbon
Purchase Info: This bottle was provided by the producer at no cost. The suggested retail price is $129.99 for a 750 mL bottle.
Price per Drink (50 mL): $8.67
Nose: Caramel, nougat, mint, and an earthy oak note.
Mouth: Follows the nose with notes of caramel, chocolate, nougat, nutmeg, allspice, and earthy oak.
Finish: On the longer side of medium and warm. Notes of caramel, nougat, nutmeg, allspice, and oak.
Thoughts: This is an interesting one. It’s very allspice- and nutmeg-forward, which threw me for a second. My cooking is never that heavily spiced with either of those, so it caught me off guard. But just because the flavor profile took me a moment to adjust to doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In fact, once I got past my preconceived notions of how I expected it to taste, I really liked it. This one’s going on the fancy shelf as a “change of pace” bourbon. I won’t want it all the time, but on a cold December evening? It’ll be perfect.
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